Oxford House has been a refuge for many people in my life. These are people who have worked from the ground up to rebuild their lives and find a place to call home. The most important part about Oxford House is that they are self governing, self supporting, and self ran. To change this aspect would go against the Oxford House model, which has been made abundantly clear that it works as is. I support rules that keep people safe, but rules that require staff or assume every home is a commercial business would keep Oxford Houses from operating in Virginia, even though research shows our model gets the best results. Please change those rules, and please clarify whether house members are considered the operator.

please do not take these homes away.